The Church Covenant provides a set of principles, personal characteristics, and actions that a covenant person agrees to pursue in his or her life. This covenant may contain different wordings than covenants of some other churches. Not all of what is set forth may be accepted by some other persons, churches, and organizations with which this church/ministry and/or its staff/members affiliate.
Pray and let the Holy Spirit teach you according to your level of spiritual maturity, spiritual understanding, and spiritual needs. Speak to your church leadership about any concern you have in the hope that all will gain deeper insight and understanding of various spiritual issues.
Our aim is to set forth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This includes avoiding setting forth personal preferences as commandments of God in matters where God gives humans flexibility and more than one righteous way to do a thing. Be aware that churches and other organizations have a right to establish certain standards of preference (e.g., dress) for certain officials within the organization in those areas where God gives more than one right way. Yet, all should be mindful of Jesus’s warning against turning the doctrines of men into the commandments of God (Matthew 15:7-9) and Paul’s warning against not enduring sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:1-5).
As Paul corrected Peter even after Peter was an apostle and filled with the Holy Ghost (Galatians 2:11-14), it is good to help one another to know, present, and practice the truth. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations as to content, including clarifications.
Note that in the more traditional church covenant after the phrase “to avoid all tattling, backbiting and excessive anger;” we have “to abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage,”. This phrase has been replaced by a phrase that provides greater biblical doctrinal clarity.
Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, or any biblical variations thereof, e.g., baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, we do now in the presence of God, angels and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ.
We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love; to strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expense of the church, the relief of the poor and the spread of the gospel through all nations.
We also engage to maintain family and secret devotions; to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements and exemplary in our deportment; to avoid all tattling, backbiting and excessive anger; to avoid abusing intoxicating drink, especially to avoid getting drunk therefrom; and to be zealous in our efforts to advance the kingdom of our Savior.
We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay.
We moreover engage that when we remove from this place, we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other church, where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.
To God Be the Glory!
